Cincinnati Reds #9 Prospect: Jose Siri

Jose Siri did not have a good run of things in Dayton during 2016. After impressing in spring training, he looked to rebound as he returned to the Dragons in April of 2017. Things went better early on, but it was a month of hot-and-cold streaks. In the end, it was the cold streaks that carried the way. Siri managed to hit just .208/.284/.325. There were signs that he was a changed hitter, though. He drew seven walks and struck out just 19 times – showing significantly better performance in both areas than he had in 2016. Siri would also steal 11 bases.

Things began to turn around in May, but not without a first week struggle. In the second week of the month, Jose Siri would hit .320, going 8-25. That would set up the rest of the month for success, where the center fielder would go on an absolute tear through the Midwest League. In the final 12 games of the month he would hit .364/.408/.705 with three triples and three home runs. The strong finish to the month would put him at .309/.352/.474 in 25 games played during May. That came along with eight more steals, pushing his total to 19.

After missing the first few games of June, Jose Siri began the month by going 0-6 in his first two games played. He would then catch first for the next four games, hitting .438 but follow it up with an 0-14 stretch. On June 16th and 17th he would go 5-10 with two doubles and a home run. On the 18th he would go 0-3 and was hit by a pitch. The next day he would start up a hit streak that ran through the end of the month. From the 22nd through 30th he would hit .361 and slug .722 with four doubles and three home runs. For the month he would hit .294/.351/.576 and he’d tack on four stolen bases.

Jose Siri took an 8-game hitting streak into July. It would continue for the entire month and it started out in a big way. On the 1st, at home against Fort Wayne, the outfielder hit two home runs. Nearly four weeks later, on July 26th, in Lansing, he’d better the feat. He would go 3-4 with a double, walk, two more home runs and drive in four. Siri would have hits in all 28 games, hitting .344 with 10 home runs, six doubles and three triples. He would add another six steals to push his season total to 29. The hitting streak had climbed to 36 games, which broke the previous record of 35 set in 1977.

The hit streak would continue into August. Jose Siri extended it to 39 games after going 1-4 in each of the first three games of the month. In a drama-filled night against Great Lakes, the streak would end. He would get hits in the next six games before going into a little bit of a slump, going 0-11 in the next three games. That would be the end of the cold streaks, though. Siri would hit .308/.370/.631 over the final 16 games of the year. Over the last five weeks of the year he would hit .281/.341/.518. He would also add in 17 stolen bases in 18 attempts.

For all 2017 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).

Jose Siri Spray Chart

Jose Siri Scouting Report

Hitting | Jose Siri has an above-average hit tool. He can use the entire field, with power, and he’s got speed to burn and leg out infield hits.

Power | There’s plus raw power in his bat. The power isn’t just raw, though, he’s able to use plenty of it today – but there’s more in there. As you can see in the spray chart above, he can hit the ball out to all parts of the field.

Running | He’s a plus-plus runner and he knows how to use it on the bases and in the field.

Arm | Jose Siri has an above-average arm.

Defense | He’s a plus defender in center field. He shows good range in all directions and makes tough plays look easy.

After a slow start to the season, Jose Siri tore through the Midwest League from about Mid-May until the end of the season. He showed off some of the best all-around tools in Minor League Baseball along the way. The ceiling for Siri is that of a perennial All-Star center fielder with power, defense and speed among the best in the game for the position.

But, along with that ceiling comes plenty of risk. His pitch recognition skills, which have absolutely taken major steps forward in the last year, are still concerning at times. He struggles specifically against the slider, which he is prone to chase out of the zone. As a result, his strikeout-to-walk ratio leaves a bit to be desired. With that said, I do believe that things were better than the numbers indicate here, as he was clearly trying to force hits at times during his hitting streak on pitches he would have taken both earlier in the year, and later in the year. Still, it’s the one area of his game where he needs to continue to show improvement.

About The Author

Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another. You can follow him on twitter @dougdirt24, contact him via email here or follow the site on Facebook. and Youtube.

14 Responses

Perhaps Siri could be given the model that Schwarber used on his rehab. Just looking at pitches to get his eyes trained and ready to play WS. I know Kyle looked at 1,000 plus pitches and he attributes that for a lot of his success in that WS. I would think a similar program could help the likes of Siri and Aquino but I am no expert.

That program was more about getting Schwarber to see pitches, not necessarily gain the skillset of identifying pitches. Schwarber never really seemed to have that problem.

With that said, the best way to improve pitch recognition is to see pitches. One of my favorite things to talk to scouts about, particularly those with coaching experience, is just how to develop this skill, because generally speaking, it seems that for 98% of players, it’s either something you have, or don’t have. For every Sammy Sosa that seemed to make a real change in figuring out how to read the spin on a pitch enough to make a difference, 50 guys never got past Double-A for the same issue.

Absolutely right that “it’s either something you have, or don’t have,” and there is a biological explanation. People vary by a factor of three in how many connections they have between the eyes and the brain. People with more connections also have more cells in the visual cortex. As a result, they are much more sensitive to certain aspects of vision, especially visual movement. Reference: S. D. Halpern et al. (1999). Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19: 102-110. (I am a retired psychology professor.)

I thought I recognized that mind. “James K.” whose comment follows was the smartest person in my third grade class. I have not seen him in fifty years! And now he explains the truth about pitch recognition to me.

Will be a very interesting follow this year to see if he can continue his success at A+. Kid has all the tools. If he can continue to improve his pitch recognition the sky is the limit. It would be nice if in a couple of years we could pencil his name into the ML lineup in CF.

Well here’s to hoping he doesn’t struggle as he advances like Aquino did. If he fulfills his potential, he could be such a difference maker. The challenge is finding a quality option to hold down CF in the MLB for a couple years till this wave of guys can get there.

The ceiling is sky high, but that floor is awfully low as well. Just under a 6% walk rate coupled with a 23.5% K rate (nearly a 4 to 1 ratio) as a 21/22 year old in Low A isn’t going to cut it. He made real strides this year, but he needs to take almost as big a lead forward again if the plate discipline is to be good enough to allow his tools to play. Given that he turns 23 in July, it’d be nice to see him in AA at that point, but that only happens if the pitch recognition improves and plays against better competition.

He finished with K/BB ratio of 4 to 1. The first half of the season when his offensive numbers were just solid he had a much better ratio while in the second half when he was killing it the ratio was closer to 6 to 1. Doug may be right about his streak making him a little to aggressive but I do find it concerning. But last year at this time few gave him much of a chance of ever figuring it out so him being closer to boom than bust now is encouraging.

He needs to work on some maturity issues as well as his batting eye. A swinging third strike could almost guarantee a very loud outburst in the dugout with bat hitting something; a called third strike provided an opportunity for a much too frequent ejection, There were times when his outstanding defensive range ended with an error when an out turned into a flamboyant error.

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